ABSTRACT
Early Beginnings The medieval university was largely a European phenomenon, inaugurated by the University of Bologna, allegedly founded in 1088.1 Bologna, together with Paris and Oxford, form the triumvirate of European university prototypes from which all subsequent examples descend. Medieval universities were essentially the products of the twelfth-century Renaissance, the rediscovery of classical learning that flourished in the 1100s. In centres of learning across Europe, renowned masters drew increasing numbers of students around them. Eager to safeguard and promote their mutual interests, they collected into scholastic guilds, akin to those of merchants and artisans. Gradually these guilds were officially sanctioned by popes, prelates and princes, attracting an increasing number of students and thus evolving into the forerunners of the modern university. In Italy, the model of Bologna was copied at Modena, Reggio nell’Emilia, Vicenza, Arezzo, Padua and Naples. Spain saw the founding of great schools at Salamanca, Valladolid, Palencia and Seville. Universities in Cambridge, Coimbra, Prague, Cracow, Vienna, Heidelberg, Cologne, Louvain, Leipzeig, St Andrews, and others ensued in quick succession (see Appendix, Table 1). Over the course of two centuries, the university had established itself as the prime sponsor of learning within major towns and cities.2
